Method and appliance for marking waxed-paper containers



June 19, 1 928.

' L. E. LA BOMBARD ET AL METHOD AND APPLIANCE FOR MARKING WAXED PAPER CONTAINERS F1164 Aug. 21, 1926 Patented June 19, 1928.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LEON E,.LA BOMBARD AND MELVIN H. SIDEBOTHAM, OF CHELSEA, MASSACHUSETTS,

ASSIGNORS TO SPECIALTY AUTOMATIC MACHINE COMPANY, OF CHELSEA, MASSA- CHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

METHOD AND APPLIANCE FOR MARKING WAXED-PAPER CONTAINERS.

Application filed August 21, 1926.

This invention relates to applying legible characters to waxed surfaces, and has particular reference to the application of legible characters on the surfaces of paper containers which are coated with wax, by employing a manually operated implement, to designate the goods, or the character of goods, in such containers.

As is Well known, it is difficult if not impossible, to Write or print on paper which is coated with parafline or similar wax. To do so is, however, frequently desirable as, for instance, when ice cream is packed in a paper box which is wax coated and the dealer wishes to designate, on the box, the particular flavor of the contained ice cream. One proposed method of meeting such desire to remove the wax from limited areas of a stock of cartons, as by melting the wax off from such areas, so that a user can write on the exposed area of paper whenever such writing is desired or required. This, of course, increases the expense of manufacture of the cartons and. moreover, reduces the moisture-proof quality of the paper where the wax has been melted or otherwise removed. And two operations are required, viz: one to remove the wax and the other to effect the marking.

The object of the present invention is to enable a container which has been previous ly treated with a substance to which ink or carbon will not adhere, such as parafiine wax. different forms of gelatin etc., to be marked by a single manual operation, to designate the goods in the container.

With this object in View, the invention consists in the manually operable appliance or device substantially as hereinafter described and claimed.

Of the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of one form of device or apparatus for effecting the marking described.

Figure 2 is a side elevation of another device or apparatus which may be employed. v

Figure 3 is a bottom plan view of the stamp illustrated by Figure 2'.

Referring first to Figure 1, the implement comprises a handle 12 of any suitable material, having a metal casing at one end as indicated at 13. In said casing a length of marking material 14, such as writing'car- Serial No. 130,612.

bon or lead, is mounted, preferably so that it can be adjusted lengthwise as it wears, a clamp screw 15 serving to hold it in adjusted position. An electric cable 16 extends through the handle 12 to a heating coil contained in the casing 13. As such coils are well known, no illustration thereof is necessary, especially since we do not limit ourselves to the employment of an electric heater to effect the desired temperature of the marker.

lVhen a wax-coated paper carton is to be marked, the implement illustrated by Figure 1, or the equivalent thereof, is manually operated to inscribe legible characters on the carton in the same manner that would be employed if the carton had no coating. Traversing the heated carbon or lead 14 over the surface melts the wax and permits the point to penetrate or plow the wax and leave the coloring matter of the carbon or lead on the paper surface, along the written or lettered lines. The melted wax largely returns to place behind the line of travel of the heated marker and sufficiently covers the deposit of coloring matter on the paper, and congeals, so as to maintain the moisture-proof quality of the paper. The wax is sufliciently transparent to permit the written characters to be read. lVe have found in practice that by this method writing (or printing as hereinafter referred to) is produced on the paper as plainly as though no wax coating were present.

Another form of implement or device for practicing the method comprises a heated stamp 20 having a type face 21 (Figs. 2 and 3). Said stamp may have a contained electric heater, in which case coloring material might be added to the type when required. As illustrated however, we employ a suitable lamp 22 the flame of which not only heats the type face 21 but also leaves a suf ficient deposit of soot thereon so that when the stamp is transferred from a position over the lamp and pressed against the surface of a wax-coated carton, the type letters first melt the wax and press it aside so that the soot is transmitted to the paper. Upon removal of the stamp the melted wax largely returns over the soot and congeals.

The stamp is illustrated as having an eye 23 by means of which, and any suitable suspending device such as a fixed hook,

the stamp can be hung at the proper distance from the lamp to be heated and re ceive a deposit of soot from the lamp flame.

We do not limit ourselves to the particular means for heating either of the marking devices illustrated, as other Well-known heating means may be substituted therefor. Nor do we limit ourselves to employing the method or the implements for marking ice cream cartons.

Having now described our invention, we claim 1. A pencil-shaped manually operable device for marking Wax-coated paper, said deacters to wax-coated paper containers, consisting in melting'the wax in a" progressive path delineating said characters and applying coloring material to the'paper along said lines. v

In testimony whereof we have afiixed our signatures.

LEON E. LA BOM B ARD; MELVIN H. SIDEBOTHAM, 

